


Promise

by snowpuppies



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: AU, Angst, Dark, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-04
Updated: 2009-04-04
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowpuppies/pseuds/snowpuppies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Buffy made a promise. She intends to keep it. AU of <i>The Gift</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promise

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by [Kitty Poker](http://kitty-poker1.livejournal.com/).

Buffy peers out the window, eyes searching for movement. The world is covered in shade for a moment as a dragon soars overhead. She watches, fingers clenching, as it continues its path, away from their hiding place.

The other demons are busy looting through the town, although she knows that what they're looking for isn't money.

But she can't think about the people out there; the only thing that matters is here with her.

The running water in the bathroom cuts off and she turns from the window.

Wide blue eyes timidly peek around the doorframe. "Buffy?"

"Yeah, Dawn. I'm still here."

"Are they gone?" Dawn cautiously moves into the room, still wearing that awful purple dress.

Buffy hates seeing her in it, but unfortunately, survival takes precedence over fashion. "For now." Grabbing the piece of pipe she picked up on their mad dash across town, she gestures to the door. "We've got to go."

"But what about…?"

Setting her jaw, Buffy turns away. "We've got to go."

Closing her eyes, she shoves the terror, the grief, the self-loathing away. Small, soft fingers grasp her own and she sighs, squeezing Dawn's hand as she opens the door.

 

***

 

_The tower shakes._

_"Buffy…" Dawn's eyes are wide with terror as the portal grows…_

_…and grows._

_She fumbles with the ropes, tugging and pulling until Dawn's arms are freed. Fingers and hands grasping at each other, they shrink away from the steadily advancing light._

_"Buffy, it's too late. I have to—"_

_"No." She turns, facing the expanse. A dragon, screeching, slips through the opening._

_If it wants blood, she'll give it—_

_With a great roar, the sky splits open._

_She stops, mid-stride._

_She's too late._

 

***

 

She steals a car. After breaking into a house.

She can't help but think of Faith, but then, she knows that soon the people who live there won't need what she took.

And at least Dawn's not wearing Glory's dress anymore.

They drive.

And drive.

In the rear-view mirror she sees the sky light up in purple and green as the rift between worlds expands.

Beside her, Dawn sleeps, curled into a ball in the passenger seat. She trembles—nightmares, Buffy's sure—and Buffy takes a hand from the wheel to tug Dawn until she's stretched out on the seat, her head resting in Buffy's lap.

Gently, she smoothes damp brown locks from Dawn's furrowed brow.

 

***

 

_They tumble down the tower steps, barely managing to keep from falling over each other as they descend._

_The view isn't better from the ground._

_She finds her friends huddled around the corner, watching in horror as dimensions mix and monsters crawl from the hole in the sky._

_She looks at them, studying each one as if it might be her last glimpse._

_Xander's clutching an injured Anya, Willow and Tara—whole again—are holding each other, Giles…looks like he might cry._

_She doesn't see Spike._

_They're all standing with her, **again**, and she knows that they'll not leave. _

_She doesn't know whether to feel relief or regret._

_Either way, the enemy is approaching, so she pushes Dawn behind her and turns to face the end of the world._

 

***

 

"You're hurt."

She sits quietly as Dawn fusses over the slash in her arm.

Barring some kind of poison, she knows Slayer healing will take care of it soon, but she lets Dawn worry over her.

She's all Dawn has, now.

But she doesn't know how long she can keep up the running, the fighting, the scavenging and hiding, the never-ending fight for survival, for _Dawn's_ survival.

She's lost count of how many times they've been found.

And one day soon, she knows they won't escape.

 

***

 

_There are too many of them._

_She fights, they all fight, but the demons pouring from the portal like ants just keep coming, bigger and tougher and nastier than the last._

_Xander's the first to go; he takes a hit meant for Anya and he falls, brown eyes fixed on a future he'll never see._

_Anya fights through her tears._

_They all do._

_But, one by one, they fail._

_She skewers a big brown demon with more spikes than skin, just as a horrible scream rips through the air._

_Turning, she sees Tara collapse._

_The earth rumbles as Willow continues to shriek in horror and grief. Buffy watches, gaping, as Willow transforms: hair and eyes bleeding to black, fingers crackling with energy…_

_She floats above the chaos, hovering in the air as lightning strikes the ground around her._

_Slowly, she rotates, eyes finding Dawn, then Buffy._

_Face contorted with grief, she mouths one word._

 

***

 

They're running out of places to hide.

The demons have taken over most of the country, and the airports stopped operating a week ago.

They're stuck, sitting ducks waiting for the slaughter.

She tries to hide her resignation from Dawn, but when you're practically the only two people on Earth, things are hard to hide.

And one evening, as they lie side by side in the dark of night, her nightmares come true.

"I don't want them to kill me" Dawn's breath is soft against her neck.

She grimaces. "I don't know if I can stop them."

"I know." The bed shifts as Dawn rolls away, returning in a moment to bask in their shared body warmth.

A small hand finds Buffy's in the dark, and something hard is pressed against her palm.

It's a knife; the blade glimmers dully in the moonlight.

"Buffy…"

"No." There's no way.

"I want you to…"

"No, Dawn." Dropping the knife, she pulls her sister as close as she can get, bodies pressed together, arms and fingers and legs grasping and clinging, and all the tears she's yet to cry spill forth from her eyes. "Dawn, I can't."

"I want it to be you."

"Dawn, I…" She presses a kiss against the damp forehead, then tucks it beneath her chin.

She wants to deny Dawn's request, point out that it's not necessary, that she'll protect her little sister to the end of the world, just as she promised, but…

…if she dies protecting Dawn, she'll leave her alone.

 

And she can't do that.

 

There's only one way this can end.

 

***

 

_"Go."_

_Buffy can hear Willow's words, even through the roar of the portal and the melee of the battle._

_She wants to refuse._

_But she made a promise._

_So she nods, blindly reaching for Dawn's hand as Willow nods in return and spins to face the demon horde._

_Fingers knotted together with Dawn's, she turns, a sob in her throat, and runs._

_And for the first time, she leaves a friend behind._

 

***

 

Blood soaks the mattress, her clothes, stains her hands and face.

She stands.

Picking up the knife, she opens the door and walks into the night.

 

There are monsters to kill.

 

 

_FIN_.

 

Originally archived [here](http://snowpuppies.livejournal.com/218259.html).


End file.
